The primary application of the subject invention is to newspaper receptacles. Other potential applications include parcel drop boxes, wherein the user must extract the contents after a deposit therein of specified types of articles. The invention additionally has other applications to containers used in business or other purposes of intermediate or temporary storage of items intended for later usage. In this respect, since the primary application of this invention is to the manufacture and construction of newspaper receptacles used primarily in rural or suburban areas, the following discussion will be directed mainly to this type of container, with the understanding that the background will be substantially similar for the other types of devices and that the invention has such wider applicability.
The construction and usage of newspaper receptacles of the type used primarily in rural or suburban areas differs significantly from those used in older urban areas. In this respect, in urban areas of moderate or large-sized cities, newspaper receptacles are usually appended directly to a building, and as such they are generally offset from the road, being on the building they are generally distal from the roadway, some distance, on which the dwelling is located. In comparison, newspaper receptacles in rural areas and many suburban areas are usually affixed above the ground on a vertical stanchion positioned immediately adjacent the road. In this respect, the newspaper receptacle door, or entranceway, is almost universally faced towards the roadway. The entrance doorway is usually emplaced extremely close to the edge of the roadway travelled by the delivery vehicle to facilitate placing of newspapers inside. Frequently, the adjacent roadway is a heavily traversed thoroughfare, with vehicles passing at at moderate to high speeds a relatively few feet from the receptacle entrance door. One can readily ascertain the relative danger to the patron by the proximity of the mailbox to the roadway traffic, in view of the fact that the user must step close to the roadway traffic in order to extract the newspaper from the receptacle. The potential for vehicular-pedestrian mishaps is substantial under such circumstances, and the threat of serious injury is a very real danger. The danger lies in the fact that the patron, or any family member who seeks to obtain the newspaper from the receptacle must step in front of the box to open the doorway, and pull the paper out accordingly. Such a procedure normally entails the need to stand in front of the receptacle doorway or close thereto and this may require, in many instances, being too close to the doorway. This aspect clearly presents a potential danger by reason of the close proximity to the roadway and the traffic thereon. Yet another problem involved with the use of such newspaper boxes is the type of doorway that is employed is frequently constructed in a manner that does not lead to maximum durability. This invention is also conceived to the end of improving doorway durability.
This invention is conceived as a means to overcome the foregoing problems and devise a receptacle which avoids or alleviates, to a substantial degree, the potential for highway accidents involving persons who are extracting newspapers from a receptacle and provide improved doorway durability. The following objects of the subject invention are directed accordingly.